Microsoft shares detailed performance benchmarks for Windows 11 vs 10 to show the faster PC

In the past, Microsoft has always made big claims regarding Windows 11 performance and how it is faster and better than Windows 10. For example, back in 2021, the company stated how the former was designed to get the best out of your system hardware.

Later in 2023, Microsoft shared detailed Windows 11 performance improvements and upgrades it achieved on the new OS. While the claims were not substantiated with data, they were certainly quite interesting.

Then, in 2024, Microsoft highlighted the differences in performance, citing a paid study, to show Windows 11 was way faster. As with most commissioned studies, the data was not represented fairly.

This week, Microsoft has shared new numbers based on its December 2024 testing in a new support document. Here are the performance claims Microsoft made:

• Top Windows 11 PCs have up to 2.7 more hours of battery life than Windows 10 PCs

• Windows 11 PCs are up to 2.3x faster than Windows 10 PCs

• Windows 11 PCs offer up to 3.2x faster web browsing than Windows 10 PCs

• Windows 11 PCs offer up to 2x faster Microsoft Office productivity than Windows 10 PCs

   

Thus, if you ask Microsoft, it will say that Windows 11 is better than Windows 10 in everything there is, be it web browsing, Office use, battery life, and overall performance in general. The company notes that the results are "based on a 95% confidence interval" for each OS across multiple tests. Microsoft also accounted for outliers.

To reach such numbers, Microsoft used the following test metrics:

For battery life, a local 1080p 24 fps MP4 video file playback was tested till 90% battery discharge on the Windows Media Player app. During the test, all settings were default except that screen brightness was set to 150 nits and Auto-brightness was disabled. Wi-Fi was connected to a network.

For the "2.3x faster" claim, Geekbench 6 results have been cited. For web browsing, Speedometer was used, though Microsoft does not mention the version. And finally, for Office, Procyon Office productivity was used.

Interestingly, Microsoft only used Intel CPUs (the company also recently recommended Intel chips for Windows 11 Pro PCs).

The company has played it a smarter this time as it has "tested performance, battery life and application capabilities of a selection of Windows 11 PCs in comparison to a selection of Windows 10 PCs", where the Windows 10 PCs feature Intel Core 6th, 8th, and 10th gen chips and Windows 11 PCs pack Intel Core 12th and 13th gen.

Thus, this is Microsoft essentially acknowledging that the underlying hardware itself actually plays a big role in the claims it has made. But to be fair to the company, there is also no way to run Windows 11, at least officially, on unsupported PCs, such that a direct comparison can be made.

You can find the support document with full battery results in this article here on Microsoft's website.

Source

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